By CS Chiwanza.
South Africa Women have won the toss and elected to bowl in the second IWC ODI match against India Women at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, on Wednesday.
The visitors come into the tie on the backfoot after their defeat to the hosts on Sunday. India leads the four-match series 1 – 0.
A few months after giving the Chinnaswamy faithful by helping the Royal Challengers Bangalore women’s team lift the Women’s Indian Premier League title, Smriti Mandhana and Asha Sobhana lit up the stadium with outstanding performances to help India secure a 143-run win over South Africa.
Mandhana set India up for victory with a superb 117 off 127 in a match were no other Indian batter scored 40 or more runs. This was her sixth ODI century. The 27-year-old, who was at the crease from the first to the 47th over, held India’s innings together with aplomb.
Sobhana, who was making her ODI debut, took her first wicket in the 22nd over, breaking Marizanne Kapp and Sune Luus’ fourth-wicket partnership that had yielded 39 runs and looked like the visitors’ path out of trouble. The 33-year-old then ran through the South African tail. She bowled 10 deliveries of her last two overs, conceded one run and took three wickets. Sobhana finished the match with four for 21 in 8.4 overs.
The South Africans struggled to get going at the hands of India’s bowlers who put them through a trial by spin. Only four players reaching double figures. Only one scored more than 30 runs, Sune Luus with 33 and the other two, Kapp and Sinalo Jafta, reached the 20s. Tazmin Britz scored 18. South Africa’s captain, Laura Wolvaardt, will hope that her side can bat a little better. The priority will probably be to bat through the full 50 overs and not be bundled out in 37.4 overs again.
India: Shafali Verma, Smriti Mandhana, Dayalan Hemalatha, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh (wk), Deepti Sharma, Pooja Vastrakar, Arundhati Reddy, Radha Yadav, Asha Sobhana
South Africa: Laura Wolvaardt (c), Tazmin Brits, Anneke Bosch, Sune Luus, Marizanne Kapp, Nadine de Klerk, Nondumiso Shangase, Meike de Ridder (wk), Masabata Klaas, Nonkululeko Mlaba, Ayabonga Khaka.